Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 46803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
“Time to feed you,” I declare. “It would be easier to take you to the kitchens, but you are still concerned about the soldiers, no?”
“Concerned? Yeah. I’m pretty fucking concerned.”
“Then I will once more retrieve you food. I assume pancakes will be a suitable breakfast?”
“Pancakes sound perfect,” she says, her eyes lighting up. “With syrup?”
“With syrup,” I agree.
Stella
I’m supposed to hate him. He is a cruel alien who has abducted me and is training me like a goddamn animal — and he keeps spanking me. But he’s also bringing me pancakes, and damn if that doesn’t make up for a lot of sins.
It has been a while since anybody looked after me. Also, I can’t work out what Kahn is trying to get from me. There’s always something that someone wants when they’re doing something for you. Kahn keeps telling me I’m not going to make a good pet, so I don’t think he’s intending on making me one of those for anyone else. I think he’s just dealing with me because I’m awake now and he doesn’t want any more chaos on his ship.
But what happens when we land back on his planet? What happens when all these terrible things he’s trying to stop from happening inevitably happen? What happens when the soldiers get out and into his population? I have so many questions.
“Pancakes,” he says, returning with a large stack.
“Do you ever think about running away?”
He looks taken aback for a moment. “Running away?”
“Yeah. Do you ever want to just… not do all of this?” I gesture with my sticky pancake fork toward all his many papers.
“There’s nothing to be gained in life by running away.”
“I disagree. Sometimes the bullshit belongs to someone else, but they just keep dumping it on you. And you’ll never fix it, because you’re not the problem. So you got to get out of there. No matter what.”
“Hm,” he says. “Is that what you did? What were you running from?”
“I’m not talking about me,” I say, lying instantly and smoothly. Well, I hope smoothly. I don’t want to talk about my problems.
“Of course you are. You want to run now, don’t you.”
“I mean, yeah. Of course.”
“Remember that collar around your neck,” he says. “It tracks you not just on this ship, but anywhere in the universe. I will always be able to find you.”
I put my fingers to the collar. I’d almost forgotten it was there. It has started to feel like a part of my body, not something separate put there by someone else. It’s warm to the touch, sharing my body temperature.
“You might always be able to find me,” I say. “But why would you bother? Look at all the work you have to do on your world. You don’t have time to chase a human around. You have better things to do. Right?”
He narrows his bright blue eyes at me, giving me a stare that makes me quiver right down low in my belly.
“I would make time to find you,” he growls.
“Why? Are you going to keep me?”
“I am going to keep you out of trouble,” he says, dodging the question. He doesn’t want me, but he doesn’t want to not have me either. He is possessive, and I don’t think he knows why.
“I doubt that,” I say, making sure to finish every bite of my pancakes. If I’m going to start annoying him, I want to do that on a full belly.
“Doubt all you like. I have no intention of allowing a rogue human to add further chaos to an entirely chaotic situation. You are very much in my possession, Stella. Get used to it.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh yeah!?”
I repeat the question but with way more sass and hopefully, threat. I don’t like him assuming that I’m just some little human he can control with a collar and a stack of pancakes. It’s offensive.
“Yeah,” he says.
There’s a charge between us. Something between my rebellion and his dominant temperament. We’re like two chemicals that just can’t help but react. We’ve been fighting it since we met. I don’t know if it is an effect of the pancakes, or the fact that we snuggled up and slept together last night, or hell, maybe there is some part of this big, super-serious alien who wants to break free of his chains of his responsibility.
“I’m going to get away,” I tell him. “There’s nothing you can do about it. This collar won’t make any difference once I hit a real landmass. Nobody can control me. Not even you.”
Kahn growls and reaches for me. I don’t even try to escape. I let him grab me and do what he needs to do to me. In his hands, I’m little more than a rag doll. The feeling of helplessness and safety together is so intoxicating. I’m genuinely not afraid of him, because I know he has no intention of hurting me. Kahn is the most protective creature in the universe as far as I am concerned.